1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input device that is used in an information processing device such as a computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Projection-type display devices, or projectors, are widely used in presentation these days. When projectors project images supplied from a computer, the control of the pointer and cursor displayed on the screen is carried out using an input device such as a mouse or key board connected to the computer.
Presenters often give explanations while directly pointing to the images on the screen. Therefore, the computer operation is ordinarily performed by someone other than the presenter. The presenter orally asks for the next operation, and the operator operates the computer accordingly.
If the operation is a simple one, the above method does not entail any problems, but where a complex operation is desired, communication between the presenter and the operator sometimes does not go well. Therefore, there has been a desire on the side of the presenter that he operate the computer himself while making the presentation. However, where the computer and the screen are distanced from each other, it has been difficult for one person to operate the computer while making a presentation pointing to the images on the screen.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to enable the presenter to easily operate the computer while directly pointing to the images on the display screen.
In order to attain at least part of the above and other related objects of the present invention, there is provided a pointing device for supplying to a computer a pointing signal indicating a position on a display screen. The pointing device comprises: a position determination device configured to determine an indicated position on the display screen pointed with a pointing rod or fingers by a user, to thereby generate a position signal representing the indicated position; an acoustic input device configured to generate an input operation signal responsive to a sound made by the user where the input operation signal represents operations of a specific input device; and a pointing signal output device configured to supply the pointing signal including the position signal and the input operation signal to the computer.
The acoustic input device includes: a tapping sound detector configured to detect a tapping sound made by the user on the display screen to generate a tapping sound detection signal; a converter configured to convert the tapping sound detection signal into the input operation signal; and an operation signal output device configured to supply the input operation signal to the pointing signal output device.
The specific input device is preferably a mouse, and the operations represented by the input operation signal include on/off of a mouse button.
The above pointing device can generate an input operation signal that corresponds to ON/OFF of the mouse button by detecting the tapping sounds made by the user with a pointing rod or fingers, and therefore the user can easily operate the computer while directly pointing to the images on the screen
The pointing rod or fingers include a pointing tool such as a pointer rod, and the hand or fingers of the presenter himself. Any means is applicable to the pointing rod or fingers as far as it points to the position that is desired to be pointed.
The operation signal output device may include a wireless transmitter.
Thus the input operation signal is transmitted from the acoustic input device to the pointing signal output device of the pointing device on a wireless basis. Consequently, the wiring between the acoustic input device and the pointing signal output device may be omitted, so that complexity of wiring and the cable becoming entangled with the presenter""s leg may be avoided, and the footprint of the device may be reduced.
The acoustic input device may be located in an ineffective area of the display screen where images are not displayed, and the position determination device may be connected to the computer using a cable.
The input operation signal may include a plurality of signal patterns representing a plurality of operations of the mouse button, respectively, and the converter generates the input operation signal having one of the plurality of signal patterns according to at least one of a frequency and an interval of the tapping sounds.
For example, the plurality of operations of the mouse button include a click, a double click, and dragging, and the converter generates the input operation signal having one of the signal patterns representing the click, double click, and dragging responsive to one, two and three tapping sounds, respectively.
When receiving a new tapping sound detection signal after generation of the input operation signal representing the dragging, the converter may convert the new tapping sound detection signal into another input operation signal representing end of the dragging.
Using the above converter, the functions of the acoustic input device may be made to be equivalent to those of the mouse button.
The converter may execute: turning ON the input operation signal when a first tapping sound is detected by the tapping sound detection device; (a) when a second tapping sound is not detected within a first period of time after the detection of the first tapping sound, turning OFF the input operation signal; or (b) when the second tapping sound is detected within the first period of time, maintaining the input operation signal ON. In the last case, the converter may execute: (b1) when a third tapping sound is not detected within a second period of time after the detection of the second tapping sound, turning OFF the input operation signal, and then turning ON the input operation signal for a predetermined period of time, or (b2) when the third tapping sound is detected within the second period of time, maintaining the input operation signal ON, and then turning OFF the input operation signal when a fourth tapping sound is detected.
Using the above converter, a click, double click, drag and the end of dragging with the mouse button may be easily implemented using the acoustic input device.
xe2x80x98The xe2x80x98ONxe2x80x99 state of the input operation signal refers to the state in which the input operation signal becomes high level if positive logic is used, and low level if negative logic is used, while the xe2x80x98OFFxe2x80x99 state refers to the state in which the input operation signal becomes low level if positive logic is used and high level if negative logic is used.
The input operation signal may include a plurality of signal patterns representing a plurality of operations of the specific input device, respectively, and the converter may generate the input operation signal having one of the plurality of signal patterns responsive to a number of tapping sounds detected within a predetermined period of time after a first tapping sound is detected.
The specific input device may be a mouse, and the plurality of signal patterns may represent a plurality of operations of the mouse button, respectively.
The plurality of operations of the mouse button may include a click, a double click, escape and dragging, and the converter may generate the input operation signal having one of the signal patterns representing the click, double click, escape and dragging responsive to zero, one, two and three tapping sounds within the predetermined period of time, respectively.
When the converter generates the input operation signal having a signal pattern representing the dragging, the converter may further generate the input operation signal having another signal pattern representing end of the dragging when a new tapping sound is detected.
The functions of the acoustic input device are thus made to be equivalent to those of the mouse button using the above converter.
The position determining device may include: a camera configured to capture an image of an effective screen area of the display screen where images are to be displayed; and a position detector configured to detect the indicated position based on the image captured by the camera.
Using the above position determining device, the indicated position on the display screen is detected at least two-dimensionally and quickly.
The present invention is also directed to an input device for generating an input operation signal representing operations of a specific input device. The input device comprises: a tapping sound detector configured to detect a tapping sound made by a user to generate a tapping sound detection signal; a converter configured to convert the tapping sound detection signal into the input operation signal; and an operation signal output device configured to output the input operation signal.
The present invention is further directed to an image display system including an image supply device; an image display device configured to display an image represented by image information supplied from the image supply device; and the pointing device or the input device described above.
The image supply device may prohibit output of a new input operation signal from the pointing device or the input device for a predetermined period of time after receiving a previous input operation signal from the pointing device or the input device.
In this way, erroneous operations caused by sounds other than the tapping sounds may be prevented during the predetermined period of time after a previous input operation signal is received.
The image supply device may keep a position of a mark image or a pointing image displayed on the image display device for a predetermined period of time after a first tapping sound is detected by the tapping sound detector.
In this way, where the screen is made of fabric on which images are displayed via a projector, for example, the position pointed to by the user may be prevented from changing due to the vibration of the screen. In addition, it can be prevented that the indicated position changes every time a tapping sound is detected.
The image supply device may change appearance of an index image displayed on the image display device responsive to the input operation signal.
In this way, the user can easily and visually learn the state of the image supply device controlled by the pointing device or the input device.
These and other objects, features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments with the accompanying drawings.